London, United Kingdom (PressExposure) February 16, 2012 -- DN Art Projects is pleased to announce P1, an exhibition of contemporary photography from Iran, which will take place from February 21st until February 26th 2012 at the Chelsea Old Town Hall in London. The exhibition brings together works by three contemporary Iranian photographers and has been organized in collaboration with Silk Road Gallery in Tehran. Participating artists include Hawar Amini, Pooya Parhizkar and Ali Zare.

Hawar Amini was born in 1981 in Marivan, Kurdistan, Iran. The artist uses found images, which he selects from an archive of war pictures taken towards the end of the war at a small Kurdish town. In some ways a deeply personal subject matter, his works primarily engage with the turbulent history of the region. Many villages in Kurdistan were erased by the government during the Iran-Iraq war and his works convey a deep-rooted desire to safeguard the cultural heritage and memories of Kurds. His haunting images negotiate a sense of loss and anxiety, what he describes as 'my own angst about historical identity and many other belongings that these people might be losing with time. I suppose this is an effort to hold back this sort of extinction.'

Pooya Parhizkar was born in 1987 in Mashad, Iran. His works evoke the world of nightmares, which everyday realities in Iran create. From grimacing monkeys to slaughtered lions, trumpeting civilians to armed soldiers, he gives material form to fantastical dreams, presenting a visual diary of some of his most internal struggles. 'The title of the last image-making series I produced is "sleep-walking." In it, I focused on displaying the nightmares that people in my society tend to have, and which are rooted in continuously repeating events of our daily lives. At times, these dreams become so realistic that life itself feels like a nightmare you wish you could wake up out of.'

Ali Zare was born in 1981 in Tehran and is a photographer and documentary film-maker. The two works included from his recent series engage with the theme of 'black gold' (oil money) a primary supplier of war and wealth for Iran as well as 'my land and my city Tehran, crazy and gray city, but lovely, not all the time, but sometimes'. The artist creates fantastical dreamscapes in these works, where aquatic life flies above ground amidst construction sites and rural landscapes interrupted by modern technology.

There has been a wave of interest in the cultural production of Iran in recent years, at a time when ever-growing apprehension over its nuclear programme and the censorship and restrictions of the current regime internally have isolated Iran from many countries. Iranian artists continue to produce compelling works that cross borders despite political blockades and it seems more imperative than ever that such crossings occur.

Gallery Location:

The Chelsea Gallery is located on the 1st Floor of the Reference Library, Chelsea Old Town Hall, Kings Road, London, SW3 5EZ

Openings times:

Tuesday and Thursday: 10am -

7pm Wednesday, Friday and Saturday: 10am - 5pm

Sunday: 1pm - 5pm

About DN Art projects:

DN Art Projects was set up in 2011 to provide a platform for emerging artists from the Middle East, primarily showcasing works from the region in the U.K